1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic information input program for automatically specifying the position of an input or a press to realize an automatic input or an automatic press for use with a system of automatically inputting an ID and a password on a user authentication screen after user authentication, and then automatically pressing an OK button for confirmation of the input contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent vigorous computerization, various types of application software (hereinafter referred to simply as an application) for electronic mail, groupware, etc. have appeared. The applications require user authentication, and prompt a user an inputting operation with an ID, a password, etc.
Normally, there are various types of applications used by a user. Therefore, the user has the heavier load of managing an ID and a password (hereinafter referred to simply as a password). Accordingly, to simplify the management of the password by the user, it has been suggested that the user authentication in all applications should be performed by only one authenticating process.
In the suggestion, the technology of monitoring a displayed user authentication screen on a computer screen, prompting the user biometric information such as a fingerprint, etc. or a password when the user authentication screen is displayed, and, when user authentication is obtained by the prompt, performing an automatic input of a password on the user authentication screen by other applications displayed on the computer screen, and an automatic press of an OK button for confirmation of the input contents is suggested.
As an example of a conventional suggestion, normally a control ID is assigned to the control (an input field, button, etc.) forming a user authentication screen, and the control ID is assumed to uniquely correspond to the control on the screen of an application.
That is, according to a conventional technology 1, the above mentioned control ID is obtained, the obtained control ID and a password are entered in the storage device on the user side in advance, an input field into which a password is to be input, and an OK button to be pressed are specified from the entered control ID when the display of the user authentication screen is detected on the computer screen, and the password is automatically input and the OK button is automatically pressed in the positions of the specified input field and the OK button.
Thus, in the Windows (registered trademark) application having a user authentication screen, the Web application in which an authentication dialog box is activated as another screen by the browser, etc. such as mail software, a common job application, etc., a password can be automatically input and an OK button can be automatically pressed when a control ID can be uniquely obtained from an input field and an OK button.
Furthermore, as another example of a conventional technology, when an input field and an OK button are embedded in the window area on the monitor screen as a user authentication screen (embedded authentication screen) in a Web application, normally a file generated in a markup language such as an HTML and an XML is assumed to be used to display a user authentication screen.
A markup language is described in text, and the description is formed by tags (a start tag and an end tag are referred to simply as tags) and text character strings enclosed between a start tag and an end tag. The start tag contains various display specification information, and the types of tags cover a broad spectrum. The description of the above mentioned input field and OK button are enclosed by specific start end tags.
According to the above mentioned conventional technology 2, the tag information (the information such as the tags and the text character string between the start tag and the end tag, etc.) is entered in advance, and the positions of the input field to be input and the OK button to be pressed are specified according to the entered tag information, thereby automatically inputting a password and pressing an OK button.
However, the method of detecting the positions of an input field and an OK button on the screen according to the control ID of the above mentioned conventional technology 1 is applied to a browser, etc. in which an input field and an OK button uniquely correspond to a control ID, and cannot be applied to other browsers.
A browser normally indicates software for sequentially viewing the contents of a data file, and currently refers to a Web browser for viewing a file and data described in a markup language through Internet. Typical examples of a Web browser are Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator (NN).
Not only in these IE and NN, but also in common mail software, etc., when a user specifies an input password to be stored, the password is automatically input next time and afterwards. Therefore, it is not necessary to consider an automatic input of the password. However, the stored password is stored in a file predetermined in an IE, NN, or mail software, etc. is a general purpose application because it is common among many and unspecified user rather than in application purposes. Therefore, a number of users are familiar with the system, and these users can easily know the stored passwords although the stored passwords are other users passwords.
Therefore, in the case of an IE, NN, mail software, etc., regardless of the automatic storage capability, a user has to store a password using a unique application so that the password can be automatically input.
However, in the case of the conventional technology 1, when the Web browser is an IE, the control ID is not individually associated with an input field and an OK button in the IE specifications, but is associated with an authentication dialog box indicating an input field and an OK button. Therefore, although the position of the authentication dialog box on the window can be obtained by the control ID, the positions of the input field and the OK button cannot be obtained.
Furthermore, when a Web browser is an NN, the positions of the input field and the OK button can be obtained on the window using a control ID. However, in the specifications of the NN, each time the display of the Web page and the authentication screen changes, a control ID is newly assigned to the display page.
Therefore, although the control ID is obtained at first authentication entry time, and the control ID is entered in advance, the control ID changes each time the authentication screen is displayed as described above. Therefore, the input field and the OK button cannot be specified from the control ID entered on the user side.
The method of specifying the positions of the input field and the OK button according to the tag information about the input field and the OK button of the markup language in the above mentioned conventional technology 2 can be used without any trouble if the markup language is described in a basic format. However, special descriptions have been added in many cases by, for example, applying images such as Jpeg, etc. instead of the text character strings of ‘OK’ to the tags of OK buttons. In these cases, it is often hard to obtain the positions of an input field and an OK button according to tag information.
Especially, in the recent Web applications, there are an increasing number of embedded authentication screens in a file written in a markup language. With the increasing number of Web applications, the standard of the markup language is updated, with various tag descriptions developed and used. In this situation, it is predicted that the number of Web applications inapplicable to the method of obtaining the positions of an input field and an OK button will increase.